too massive?!?

[Terry78]

Yo! Too heavy duty. That is the question. You see I needed w
Weight Distribution hitch. I have 2 sets of bars but nothing to
Connect them to. Soooo I went to Amazon. Looking at all the pretty
Hitches. Big ones small ones. Light duty to heavy duty. I put my tounge jack on a bathroom scale. Needle went around 4 or 5 times.
Kidding about the scale part. But I have no way of knowing what
My tounge weight is
My bigger set of bars are probably around 750 lbs. But i found a hitch on Amazon for $179.00 free shipping! I bought the biggest heaviest
Beast of a hitch I've ever seen. Rated for 1.200 lbs toung weight.
I'll probably never pull a trailer that weighs 16,000 pounds!
My question is how to set up a hitch like this? It has tilt and all.
Is there any difference between this hitch and a 750lb hitch?

[BarneyS]

Check out the procedure described in this link.
Your hitch may look a bit different buts the procedure is the same.
Barney

[Terry78]

Terry78 wrote:
It really didn't have any instructions. A few pictures. But no real instructions

And they're written in 47 different languages

[Terry78]

It really didn't have any instructions. A few pictures. But no real instructions

[drsteve]

Follow the procedure in the instructions that came with the hitch.

[Terry78]

Lynnmor wrote:
How to weight tongue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoLA44lcgU

Thats a great video! Thanks. We need to get this in a sticky.

[MitchF150]

I've got #1000 EAZ-Lift WD setup that's as old as my trailer. Got them both brand new back in 2002. The hitch head is rated for #1400 tongue and #14,000 trailer, but that does not matter really..

Towed with a 97 F150 and the current truck in my sig.

Tongue weight on the trailer is around the #650 range.

But, I also load a bunch of stuff in the bed of the truck, so they help with that too.

Anyway as far as setting up, what I did was (I don't know if it's right, wrong or whatever, but has been working fine) level the trailer and measure from the ground to the bottom of the tongue.

Assuming you have an adjustable hitch head shank, position the head so the top of the ball is the same height as your level tongue.

I tilted the hitch head as much as it would go.

Hitch up the trailer and there should be some sag. That's okay, because now you adjust the bars to bring it back up.

Latch the tongue to the hitch and start cranking up on the jack. Lift the truck up a good 2-3" after taking the tongue weight off the hitch.

Install the bars in the hitch head and assuming you have the bars with chains on them put the link that goes into the stirrup thing and lift up with the cheater bar. Do the same number of links on the other side.

Lower the trailer and see how level it is.

Too high? Try one less link. Too low? Try one more link. Tongue of the trailer still too high, might need to lower the hitch head another hole if possible.

Trial and error from there to dial it in as you haul the rig down the road going over different road conditions and all.

Took me a couple of trips to dial mine in, so just know it likely won't be perfect the first time out! 🙂

Good luck!

Mitch

[ScottG]

You can have too heavy of spring bars and end up with porpoising issues.
Hope that's not the case though - good luck!

[carringb]

Pretty easy to get your weights. Go to a closed ODOT scale. Drive over slow and write down the truck weight (make sure both tires on the scale pad) then pull forward and weigh the trailer axles. Then, pull up and off to the side, drop the trailer, circle around and weight only the truck. The difference between the two trucks weights will be your tongue weight. Add that number to your trailer axle weight, and you have your trailer total weight.

[Lynnmor]

How to weight tongue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoLA44lcgU

[4x4ord]

When you get your weights you'll have to know the combined weight of your TV's front and rear axles both loaded and empty.

[wanderingaimles]

How can you know the size bars needed if the trailer is old and weight information is not available from the manufacturer and you have not physically weighed the entire rig?

You could try to guess by looking at information for something similar, but then,,, you are still guessing.

Find a scale
Weigh your tow vehicle alone.
weigh your tow vehicle only with trailer connected but off the scale.
weigh the entire rig.

Then you can decide on the size bars you want. Until you have some basic info to work with, be it from a manufacturer or a scale, you are only guessing.

Edit add;
Maybe this will help with what you are asking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anhi8lo4Od0

But you still need to know the weights to choose the appropriate size bars.